Four additional residents at a senior care facility where a COVID-19 outbreak has occurred tested positive for the virus, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 19, officials said Thursday.
One of those residents, an 87-year-old woman, died Wednesday. Three remained hospitalized Thursday. Fourteen are isolated at the facility, said David Sease, spokesperson for Otterbein Franklin.
Forty-four Otterbein Franklin SeniorLife Community residents have been tested, Sease said. Of those, 18 tested negative for the virus, and seven test results were pending Thursday.
Nine Otterbein employees have tested positive, including four contracted therapists. All of those employees are self-isolating at home, he said.
As of Thursday afternoon, 23 employees had been tested. Of those, nine tested negative for the virus, and five test results were pending Thursday.
All Otterbein employees and health care contractors have the opportunity to get tested through a partnership with Eli Lilly, which is offering tests to health care workers. Otterbein has asked all of its employees to get tested, Sease said. Initially, Otterbein Franklin officials said that its medical director would test all employees prioritized by role, with direct caregivers being first.
“We are really happy with the Eli Lilly program and are incentivizing employees to take advantage and get tested. That should start very soon for us. Some may have already engaged, but no results yet,” he said.
The outbreak originated last week with a therapist who was admitted to the hospital and tested positive. Otterbein Franklin has more than 500 residents, 165 of whom are in the nursing home where the outbreak has occurred, and about 300 employees.
Local health officials on Thursday reported 132 positive COVID-19 cases. The county’s death toll remained at four Thursday, said Betsy Swearingen, director of the Johnson County Health Department.
Thirteen more Hoosiers have died from coronavirus-related illnesses, raising the state’s virus death toll to 78 while its confirmed cases surged past 3,000, state health officials said Thursday.
Indiana’s number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, grew by 474, to 3,039 following corrections to the previous day’s total, the Indiana State Department of Health said.
The department has said that the additional deaths it reports each day occurred over multiple days. Those deaths are reported once there is a confirmed positive test for COVID-19 in each case.
Indianapolis had 192 of the state’s 474 new coronavirus cases reported Thursday. Indianapolis and the seven counties surrounding it account for 45% of Indiana’s COVID-19 deaths and 62% of its confirmed cases. Indianapolis alone has had 24 COVID-19 deaths, or 31% of Indiana’s total, and 1,304 confirmed cases that account for 43% of the state’s total.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are among those particularly susceptible to more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
